Norton Zone : Free 5GB Secure Cloud Storage from Symantec

Norton Zone is a free cloud storage service from Symantec – the pioneers of security software like Norton Antivirus. Norton Zone offers free 5GB data storage for anyone who creates a Norton Zone account. You can use it to share folders and files with friends or family. The Norton Zone client is available for Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad. Norton Zone synchronizes your cloud storage continuously across all the devices that you have connected with a Norton Zone account – making it perfect for project collaboration. Furthermore, all your files in the cloud are scanned for malware, preventing you from spreading any malware infection by accident.

Norton Zone desktop client is available for Windows and Mac. If you are a smartphone user, then you can download apps for Android, iPhone or iPad. To download the desktop clients or smartphone apps, you can visit the Norton Zone website. It will show you the relevant download link for your operating system or mobile device. The desktop client for Windows is around 13 MB in download size. After the installation of Norton Zone client, it would ask you to create a new Norton Zone account. If you already have an account, then you can sign-in using your email address and Norton Zone password.

By default, Norton Zone synchronizes the contents of your cloud storage to a folder Personal located inside your user profile folder on your hard disk. Any file operatins you perform (copy, modify or delete files) on this folder would be automatically reflected to your Norton Zone account. Likewise, any changes made on your Norton Zone account would be synchronized back to this folder. Even if you modify a file or rename it, its older versions are stored in the cloud, so you can recover from accidental changes made to your files. Similarly, files you delete are put in a special folder called Trash in the cloud. The older versions of modified files and deleted files can only be accessed through the web interface of the Norton Zone.

Norton Zone client would place an icon in your system tray which keeps showing its status – transfering files or up-to-date. A green checkmark over the system tray Norton Zone means that everything is synchronized across all the connected devices and the cloud storage. A left-ward arrow indicates that some changes were made on the cloud and new files are being downloaded. A right-ward arrow indicates that you copied some files in the Norton Zone folder on your hard disk and they are being uploaded to the cloud. You can right-click on this system tray icon to open the Norton Zone folder, launch the Norton Zone website, change Norton Zone client preferences etc.

The Norton Zone website offers many more features that the desktop client. You can visit the Norton Zone website in your web browser and sign-on to your account. Alternatively, you can right-click on the system tray icon and select Launch Norton Zone website to open the site with you already signed-in to your account. The website shows you a listing of all your files on the cloud. You can also access the Trash folder containing a copy of all your deleted files.

You can view more information about a file by clicking on it. Some of the common image files, video files, text files etc., can be previewed right inside the Norton Zone website. On the left side of a file, you can see the link to share the file with your friends or family. You can click on this Share link to this file link to create a sharing link which you can post on facebook, twitter or email to your friends. Norton Zone gives you options to disable the sharing link after a specified date or after a pre-specified number of downloads. At the bottom of the file preview, you can see the older versions of the file. The file versions are labeled v1, v2, v3 and so on. You can click on a version to preview and download that version of the file.

Norton Zone scans all your shared files for malware before anyone can download them through the shared links. If you share a malware infected file, then Norton Zone refuses to open the file and shows a message informing that the file cannot be downloaded due to possible infection by malware. This is a great feature that prevents you from sharing malicious files by accident.

Norton Zone is a very secure and safe to use cloud storage service. It stores your files in encrypted format so they stay protected from hackers. Norton Zone data-centers are managed by Symantec themseleves, so everything stays in their own control. You are given full control of sharing files based on how many downloads or view are allowed and for how long you want to keep sharing them. Your files are scanned for malware before sharing. Norton Zone is available for all the popular devices and operating systems. Even though it does not support Linux, you can always use it in any operating system through the web browser interface.